In the prior art, as for instance illustrated in FIG. 7, various methods have been employed for plating forked end parts 4 of a train of connector terminals 3 formed in a manner of comb teeth and spaced apart a predetermined distance from each other on a continuous strip member 2 having a plurality of pilot holes 1, said connector terminals in the illustrated example being so arranged that the forked end parts thereof are oriented transversely at right angles to the pass line PL.
Especially, in case of minute plating of terminal contact portions (plated portions) 7 at the apexes of protuberant parts of small areas 6 formed opposite to each other with a minute gap 5 therebetween at the forked end part 4 of each connector terminal, there has been generally used a dip plating method in which the entirety of the forked end part 4 including the protuberant parts 6 is dipped in a plating bath not shown in the drawing and plating of the particular areas is conducted by controlling the liquid surface level, or a jet plating method in which the portion of the forked end part which needn't be plated is covered with a mask and the plating solution is jetted to the end part of each connector terminal. (See, for instance, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 126784/84, 161084/82, 83180/80, etc.).
These conventional plating methods for connector terminals, however, had the problem that a larger amount of the noble metal used for plating is consumed than is actually required for intended plating. In the case of dip plating for instance, such a problem is encountered as the peripheral surface of the forked end part 4 of each connector terminal 3 is entirely and uniformly plated. In the case of jet plating using a mask, especially when it is used for plating the terminal contact portions 7 of small areas opposing to each other with a minute gap 5 therebetween as shown in FIG. 7, it is difficult to precisely define the areas to be plated and also great difficulties are involved in perfectly masking the terminal end part of such a specific configuration. Examinations by the present inventors have shown that in case of plating the terminal contact portions 7 such as shown in FIG. 7 with gold by the methods, the entire plated portion covers 10-20 times the area which is actually required to be plated, and also gold is deposited on portions other than the portion necessary to be plated to a thickness 1.5 to 3 times that of the necessary amount. The amount of noble metal used in such plating may reach in total 15-50 times the amount actually needed for plating the desired part. Accordingly, the reduction of noble metal consumption in this type of plating has been strongly desired.